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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2008

VOLUME �

OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL

PERFORMANCE REPORT

THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

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MISSION, VISION & CORE VALUES

VISION

“To be an effective and efficient Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) in promoting effective public Accountability”.

MISSION

“To Audit and report to Parliament and thereby make an effective contribution to improving pub-lic accountability and Value for Money spent”.

CORE VALUES

The OAG is committed to upholding the follow-ing as its core values:-

Integrity - Being upright and honest.

Objectivity - Display impartiality and professional judgment.

Professional Competence - Act with diligence, proficiency and team spirit.

Mr. John F. S. Muwanga swearing in as Auditor General

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History of the Office of the Auditor General

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) is a Constitutional Office. It is the Supreme Audit In-stitution (SAI) of Uganda. Its history can be traced back to the 1900s, when it was an exten-sion of the Directorate of the Colonial Audit Office based in London. From then up to 1920, the accounts of the Uganda Protectorate Government were audited by a team of auditors from the Director of Colonial Audit in London. The Uganda Office was established in 1929 and was head-ed by Mr. R. H Carter at a rank of Auditor. In 1952 the Headquarters of the office moved from Entebbe to Kampala at the Treasury Building headed by Mr. Haywood as the Auditor General.

The Office started by auditing the Central Ministry accounts of the Protectorate Government. However, services were later extended to Buganda Kingdom funds including Local Authorities accounts. Dur-ing the 1960s a number of public enterprises and corporations were created with requirements that the Auditor General audits their accounts. This has remained one of the key functions of the office.

The Office became the Supreme Audit Institution of Uganda in 1962 headed by the Comptrol-ler and Auditor General (AG). By that time, there were three regional offices namely; Entebbe Branch for Central and Western Regions, Mbale Branch for Eastern and North Eastern re-gion and Gulu Branch for Northern and North Western region. Six more branches were opened up in 1975 as the volume of work increased due to the creation of more administrative units. These were Jinja, Fortportal, Mbarara, Arua, Masaka and Soroti.

The Office of the Auditor General has had five Auditors General since independence. Mr. Night who was the last British Auditor General handed over to Mr. G.H. Kabiswa who be-came the first African Auditor General of Uganda in 1968 and served up to 1975. He was followed by Mr. Leo Outeke from 1975 to 1992 and Mr. James Kahooza 1992 to 2001 who in turn was followed by Mr. John F.S. Muwanga the current Auditor General.

PROFILE OF THE OFFICE OF THEAUDITOR GENERAL

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Recent Developments

The OAG as stipulated in the law is headed by the Auditor General. The Au-ditor General is assisted in management of the functions of the Office by the Assistant Auditor General and the Directors of Audit who head the Directorates. The Office currently has ten Regional Branches in Mbale, Jin-ja, Soroti, Arua, Gulu, Fort Portal, Mbarara, Masaka, Kampala and Kam-pala City Council (KCC). Presently, there are 328 employees out of whom 240 are Auditors and 88 are in the Administrative Support function.

The enactment and launch of the National Audit Act, 2008 in the last quar-ter of the year 2008 was a major milestone in the growth of the OAG. The Act provides the legal frame work within which the tasks and business pro-cesses of the Office must be undertaken so as to permit the requisite operational and financial autonomy to subsist that will enable the Office ful-fil its constitutional mandate in a more proficient and effective manner.

PROFILE OF THE OFFICE OF THEAUDITOR GENERAL...contd

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CURRENT MACRO STRUCTURE OF THE OFFICE OF AUDITOR GENERAL

AuditorGeneral

Assistant AuditorGeneral

Director of Audit Local Government

Director of Audit Central Government

Director of Audit Statutory

Corporations/ VFM

Director of Audit Finance &

Administration

The OAG as stipulated in the law is headed by the Auditor General who is appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament. As the Chief Executive of the Office, the Auditor General is assisted in management of the functions of the Office by the Assistant Auditor General and the Directors of Audit heading the various Directorates. The current Macro Structure of the Office is depicted as below:-

The Post constitutional Restructuring Report of the Office of the Auditor General (2001) by Ministry of Public Service, had recommended the OAG to operate under three Directorates of Audit:- Central Government, Statutory Institutions and Divestiture Accounts, and Local Governments and two Departments of; Finance and Administration and Value for Money Audit, Audit Development and Quality Assurance with a total establishment of 390.

However under the current status, the total establishment is 395 with four Directorates of Audit Local Governments, Directorate of Audit Central Governments, Directorate of Audit State Corporations/VFM, and Directorate of Finance & Administration. Arrangements are being made to have this structure reviewed.

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Mr. John F.S. MuwangaAuditor General

Mrs. Keto N. Kayemba Asst. Auditor General

Mr. Joseph L. EwamaAg. Director of Audit

Finance & Administration

Mr. Francis MasubaDirector of Audit

Statutory Corporations/ Value for Money

Mr. Stephen KatereggaDirector of Audit

Central Government

Mr. Aloysius MayanjaDirector of Audit

Local Government

Mr. Edward AkolAsst. Director of Audit Central Government

Mr. Fredrick AkyaireAsst. Director of Audit

Local GovernmentMr. John H. MuyimbwaAssit. Director of Audit

Value for Money

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FOREWORD

This past year has been one of the most eventful in this Office’s history. It has been a year which saw the enactment of the first National Audit Act which now determines the legal frame-work within which the Office operates. It was a historic moment because it marked the beginning of a new era for the Office.

The commencement of the Act on 4 October 2008 transformed the Office into a corporate entity with perpetual succession which may sue or be sued in its corporate name. This new status brought about risks and challenges associated with corporate en-

tities. Since that date, much of my focus has been on planning and providing the right direction to steer the numerous activities which are associated with “change” and managing “change”, so as to remain on course to achieve and meet all our set targets as set out in our corporate plan. It has therefore been a very challenging period with a lot of significant changes, and trying moments.

Each of the four directorates of the Office maintained their positive momentum and each was able to reflect positive improvements in their performance – as amplified in their individual re-ports. The significant investment of the Office in “value for money audits” began to pay off divi-dends. The vfm unit was able to register nine completed audits, to date, accumulated over the years, but most significantly the success factor is the twelve audits it has in work in-progress to be completed within the forthcoming financial year and the technical capacity which is now estab-lished and which will permit the unit to undertake an estimated ten (plus) vfm audits annually.

The Directorate of Local Authorities also achieved a milestone because it was able to audit and complete all the 184 Higher Local Governments within this current financial year reporting peri-od. In simple terms, this translates into stating that for the financial year ended 30 June 2008, all the 80 District Councils, 13 Municipal Councils and 91 Town Councils were audited and reports were issued. Whilst appreciating that a backlog still exists for the lower level (sub counties and divisions) it is again pleasing to note that the entire 2004/05 arrears were also cleared. Substan-tive progress has also been made in clearing the backlog for 2005/06 during the current year and this backlog together with that of 2006/07 is planned to be cleared during the forthcoming finan-cial year. Rationalisation of staff from other directorates assisted in helping to clear this backlog.

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FOREWORD...contd

The Central Government Directorate undertakes the major task of auditing central government expendi-tures as appropriated through the national budget. Total government expenditure (excluding arrears and net lending) amounted to shs.4.4 trillion. The government revenue collections for the year amounting to shs.3.4 trillion and collected by the Uganda Revenue Authority were also audited by the directorate. In addition, 5 special audits, 40 tertiary institutions and 103 government donor funded projects were audited (whilst noting that some projects are contracted out). The Directorate also during the year had significant interaction with the Public Accounts Committee and attended 105 meetings in which the Hon-ourable Members discussed the reports for the financial years ended 30 June 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

The newly formed Directorate of Finance and Administration were faced with consolidating and pre-senting the OAG budget which had more than quadrupled to stand at shs.21 billion. It was a daunt-ing experience for them which they successfully managed to achieve and obtain the requisite Parlia-mentary approval of the budget.

The success of the office and the improved performance has been made possible by the continual sup-port of both the Government and Donor partners. The three oversight Parliamentary Committees and the Committee of Finance, Planning and Economic Development were supportive in all our endeavours and made our task so much easier. As a Constitutional Office which reports to Parliament, we cherished and extensively benefited from the guidance we received from the Rt. Hon. Speaker throughout the year.

The tasks ahead still remains a formidable challenge with the most significant being attaining an optimal organization structure and an enterprise risk management model to guide the Office.

In conclusion, I must acknowledge the dedication, team spirit and commitment of my staff who worked tirelessly to make it a year of success. Inspite of the insurmountable chal-lenges which we often met, it was gratifying to note that they remained steadfast and res-olute to those challenges and maintained the core values of the office to which we all aspire to.

John F.S. MuwangaAUDITOR GENERAL

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vision, Mission and Core Values 2

Profile of the Office of the Auditor General 3

Office of the Auditor General Structure �

Foreword of the Auditor General �

�.0 Introduction �0

2.0 Implementation of the Corporate Plan ��

3.0 Operationalisation of the National Audit Act (NAA) ��

�.0 Performance on Audit Activities ��

�.0 Human Resource Management and Development 23

�.0 Office Assets and Logistics 2� �0. Information Communications Technology and Audit Development 28

8.0 Financial Management and Budget Performance 2�

�.0 Relationship with the Oversight Committees of Parliament 3�

�0.0 International Relations 32

��.0 Corporate Social Responsibility 3�

�2.0 Registration of Accountants 3�

�3.0 Appendices 37

Glossary 3�

List of OAG Offices 3�

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�.0 INTRODUCTION

�.� Mandate of the Auditor General

The Office of the Auditor General is the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) provided for in the Constitu-tion of the Republic of Uganda. Under Article 163 (3) of the Constitution, the Office is required to audit and report on the Public Accounts of Uganda and of all public offices including the Courts, the Central and Local Government Administrations, Universities and Public Institutions of like nature, any public Corporations or other bodies established by an Act of Parliament and report to Parliament.

�.2 Functions of the Auditor General

Section 13(1), 8(2) of the National Audit Act (NAA) amplifies the mandate and functions of the Au-ditor General and clarifies those functions to include the audit ot classified expenditure, Govern-ment investments, Treasury Memoranda, Procurement audits as well as conduct special audits.

Under Article 163(4) of the Constitution (1995) as amended, the Auditor General is re-quired to submit to Parliament annually by 31st March a report of the accounts audited for the financial year immediately preceding. This report is herewith attached under five (5) volumes:-

Volume � - Annual Performance Report of the Office of the Auditor General.Volume 2 - Audit of Central Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies Volume 3 - Audit of Local Governments and Referral Hospitals Report of the Auditor General.Volume 4 - Audit of State Enterprises, Commissions and Statutory CorporationsVolume 5 - Value for Money Audit Reports

In this report of Volume 1, I present my office’s annual performance which includes my man-date as mentioned above, status of Corporate Plan implementation, status of National Audit Act implementation, future plans and budget performance of the year; my role as the reg-istrar of Accountants; and a summary of major cross cutting audit findings across Cen-tral Government, Local Governments, Statutory Corporations and Value for Money audits.

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2.0 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CORPORATE PLAN (2007/2008)The Corporate Plan of the Office of the Au-ditor General covers a five (5) year peri-od from 1st July, 2006 to 30th June, 2011. An Implementation Committee chaired by the AG with six sub-committees was set up to achieve the objectives of the plan. The six (6) main strategic objectives of the Corporate Plan to be achieved by 2011 and the level of achievements during 2007/2008 are as follows:-

2.� Achieve financial and Operational Independence of the Auditor General

The enactment of the National Audit Act (NAA) during the year created the legal framework for the Auditor General and the Office to oper-

ate in and enhance its financial and operation-al independence. The NAA was assented to by His Excellency the President on 18th June, 2008 and it came into effect on 4th October 2008.

2.2 Improve the Budgeting, Financial Management and Monitoring Systems for OAG

The Office of the Auditor General Budget sub-committee prepared a budget for the financial year 2008/2009 of Shs.24.861 billion. Out of this amount, Shs. 21.17bn was approved by Parlia-ment. A new Accounting Officer for the Office of the Auditor General without audit responsibili-ties was appointed in November, 2008 to manage the financial and other resources of the Office.

A resident Senior Internal Audi-tor was deployed at the Office of the Auditor General to advise the Accounting Officer and assist him manage the risks involved.

External audit of the Office is car-ried out by an audit firm appoint-ed by Parliament. The process to get an audit firm to audit the Office accounts for the Financial Year 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 has been completed.

The President of Uganda H.E Yoweri K. Museveni congratulates Mr. John F.S. Muwanga after swearing-in as AG

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The Government’s Accountability Sector Working Group established an Audit committee which will follow up audit issues raised by the Internal and External Auditors to the Office.

2.3 Create an Environment that enables the Office of the Auditor General to Operate Efficiently and Recruit, Retain and Motivate Suitable Staff

The National Audit Act allows the Office to have greater autonomy in the management of its budget-ary resources and the Auditor General in consultation with the Public Service Commission to manage the Human Resource aspects of the Office.

In this regard the following initiatives are being undertaken during the financial year 2008/2009:-

• Review the organisation structure (still on-going with a consultancy to be undertaken).• Auditor General Staff Rules and Regulations (still on-going and in the final stage).• Conduct change management activities (still on-going).• Develop a human resources manual (still on-going).• Secure adequate funding for implementation of the reforms (The 2008/09 budget was approved in its entirety).

In addition, the Office acquired nine (9) vehicles and 22 motor cycles for Branch Offices during the financial year 2007/2008 to facilitate them in their field audit operations.

2.� Improve Internal and External Communication to Raise the Profile of the Office of the Auditor General with Staff and Other Stakeholders

The Office of the Auditor General established a communications committee which formulated a com-munications strategy. The Committee has been tasked with responsibility of improving the internal communication as well as strengthening relationships with committees of Parliament and other Stakeholders. With regard to internal communication, OAG has developed an intranet (intranet.oag.go.ug) available to all staff in addition to the weekly Newsletter Fliers as well as the Quarterly OAG Bulletin.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CORPORATE PLAN (2007/2008)...contd

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2.� Improve the Quality of Audit Work by Developing and Implementing Value for Money Audit Strategy and Setting up Effective Quality Assurance Arrangements

During the financial year 2007/2008 several activities were planned and the achievements were as follows:-

(a) Professional Development and Capacity Building

• A total of 7 officers qualified as professional accountants and 86 staff are on training. The number of staff who have obtained professional qualifications has been increasing over the years as indicated below:-

Year Number at the beginning of year

Increment (Net adjustment)

Number at end of year

2004/2005 48 4 522005/2006 52 6 582006/2007 58 5 632007/2008 63 7 70

The Net adjustment figure caters for staff who have also left.

• A total of 120 officers undertook various courses which included audit of computerised accounts, managerial skills, teammate audit software and forensic audit training.

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(b) Information Technology and Audit Development

The Office has continued its effort of implementing its IT Strategic Plan which focus-es on creation of an appropriate IT governance structure, development of IT audit capacity, use of automated audit tools, use of a new automated audit management system (elec-tronic working papers) and creation of an office wide ICT infrastructure to enhance communica-tion and improve on business process. Further roll-out on the programme to all staff is on-going.

2.� Value for Money Audits

The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda under Article 163 (3) and Sec-tion 13 of the National Audit Act 2008 mandates the Office of the Auditor Gener-al to conduct Value for Money audits in respect of any project involving public funds.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CORPORATE PLAN (2007/2008)...contd

Participants pose for a group photo with the Asst. Auditor General Mrs. Keto N. Kayemba (3rd from Right) at the end of the AFROSAI-E IT Self Assessment for OAG on 2�th October 2008 at Imperail Royale Hotel.

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VFM Participants pose for a group photo with the Asst. Auditor General (1st Row standing 6th from Left) on 3�st October 2008 at Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel.

The Office of the Auditor General received support for the period (2005–2009) from the Royal Nor-wegian Embassy and the African Development Bank to finance the field audits of VFM and train-ing of staff totalling US $600,000 and US$480,000 respectively. The grants are intended to achieve a sustainable VFM audit capacity and capacity to conduct VFM audits within the Office.

The office aimed at training 50 staff in VFM audit. A total of 25 OAG staff complet-ed a VFM audit training course in February 2007 (Phase I). Another group of 25 staff (Phase II) are undergoing the same training scheduled to be completed by June, 2009.

The completion of the 2nd Phase of the training will enable OAG to carry out audits on a sustain-able basis. The OAG has established a performance audit unit dedicated to Value for Money au-diting and is currently testing the OAG VFM Audit Manual which was developed by the Unit.

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2.� Quality Assurance and Peer Review

To further improve the work methods, the Office had a quality assurance peer review carried out by the African Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI). The objective of the exercise was for AFROSAI to review the audit methods and quality control arrangements and advise on areas of further improvement.

A report was submitted and an Action Plan was drawn up to implement the recommendations. The peer review is planned to be undertaken every three (3) years.

2.8 Promote Increased Accountability, Probity and Transparency in the Management of Public Funds and Resources by Producing Reports that Add Value and Make Positive and Practical Recommendations

To produce reports that add value and make positive practical recommendations, all the manage-ment letters on Local Government audits on 2007/2008 accounts were discussed at the Headquarters.

The format of the annual report to Parliament was changed so as to cater for the various oversight Parliamentary Committees The report is now produced in five (5) Volumes which cater for the differ-ing needs of the Committees making it easier for them handle.

The commencement of Value for Money audits in the office, has contributed towards produc-ing reports that add value and make positive and practical recommendations to Parliament.

The staff have also been trained in various audit methods and techniques in order to assist in producing quality reports that add value and make positive and practical recommendations.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CORPORATE PLAN (2007/2008)...contd

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3.0 OPERATIONALISATION OF THE NATIONAL AUDIT ACT, 2008 (NAA)With the amendment of the Constitution in 2005, the Office was removed from the domain of the mainstream Public Service. It now operates as an autonomous institution under a new law being the National Audit Act (2008).

As stated earlier, the NAA (2008) came into effect on 4th October, 2008 and was inaugurated by the Speaker of Parliament on 17th October, 2008.

The passing of the NAA and the assent to it by the President is a fundamental milestone in the office’s endeavour to attain the necessary requisite autonomy and professional independence. The Act aims to regulate and facilitate the performance of the functions of the Office and the Auditor General.

The Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament Edward Ssekandi (3rd from Left) standing next to the Auditor General Mr. John F.S. Muwanga

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OPERATIONALISATION OF THE NATIONAL AUDIT ACT, 2008 (NAA)...contd

The Act provides a meaningful degree of autonomy in the process of re-cruiting, promoting and disciplining of my staff; and in human resources training and development as well as in the management of the Office’s budgetary process and resources. The law facilitates and enhances the reporting procedures to both the Executive and Legislature (Parliament).

The Act also permits the Auditor General for the purposes of minimising the unproductive expenditure of public moneys, maximising the collection of revenues and averting negligence, carelessness, theft, dishonesty or other-wise make recommendations to the Minister of Finance from time to time.

In addition where the Auditor General becomes aware of any payment made without due authority, any defeciency or loss occassioned by neg-ligence or misconduct, or any failure to observe a policy of economy or where any sum which ought to have been but was not brought to ac-count; then the Auditor General is empowered to disallow the sum as charge on the public funds and make a report to the Speaker of Parlia-ment. The Speaker shall then be able to pass such a report to the ap-propriate Parliamentary oversight Committee for appropriate action.

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�.0 PERFORMANCE ON AUDIT ACTIVITIES�.� Financial Audits

During the period, I planned to carry out 2,765 audits of public accounts of Uganda including VFM audits. I was able to complete 2,470 of the audits planned representing a performance level of 89.3 percent. The details of the audits per each Directorate are as contained in the table below:-

Directorates Planned Audits Completed AuditsCentral Government

AuditsMDA 81 81

Projects 110 103Special Audits 7 5

Local Governments Audits

HLGs 184 184LLGs 2,292 1,995

Regional Hospitals 11 11Special Audits 2 2

State Corporations Parastatals 77 78Special Audits 4 4

VFM Audit Unit VFM Audits 8 8Totals 2,��� 2,���

Most of the uncompleted audits are planned backlog audits of LLGs (296), projects (7) and special audits (2).

�.�.� Central Government Audits

The Directorate of Audit (Central Government) carries out audits of Government Min-istries, Departments, Agencies (MDA) and Projects. During the year the Director-ate completed 189 audits of accounts of Government MDAs (81), projects (103) and special audit investigations (5) as against a total of 198 planned. Details are in the table below:-

MDAs Projects Special AuditsPlanned Audits 81 110 7

Completed Audits 81 103 5Variance Nil 7 2

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PERFORMANCE ON AUDIT ACTIVITIES...contd

�.�.�.� Audit of Treasury Memoranda

Effective from October following the enactment of the NAA, the OAG was mandated to un-dertake the audit of the Treasury Memoranda. It is an activity which will be planned into the audit for the year ended 30th June 2009. The Treasury Memoranda is pre-pared by the Treasury following their review of the Public Accounts Committee reports.

�.�.�.2 Grants of Credit Issued

During the financial year the AG issued grants of credit to the Minister of Finance authorising with-drawals of funds from the consolidated fund amounting to Shs.4,542,674,507,381 in fulfilment of section 154(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda that requires the AG to approve all monies withdrawn from the consolidated funds. The details are shown in the table below:-

Expenditure Number of warrants issued AmountRecurrent 41 2,488,115,791,758

Development 23 1,201,940,692,420Statutory 11 852,618,023,203

Total �,��2,���,�0�,38�

4.1.1.3 Inspection of Tertiary Institutions

In addition, during the period, the Directorate of Central Government inspected and reported on forty (40) Tertiary Institutions that are in the Education Sector. �.�.2 Local Government Audits

The Directorate of Audit for Local Authorities conducts financial audits into all the Local Authori-ties. For the financial year 2007/2008 the Local Authorities accounts that were planned to be au-dited were 184 Higher Local Government (HLGs), 898 Lower Local Governments (LLGs) and 11 Referral Hospitals (RHs) totalling to 1,093 accounts and arrears of 2,292 LLGs accounts of the Fi-nancial Years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 making the grand total of accounts to 3,385 accounts.

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In the period of reporting I was able to audit 2,195 accounts. These represent a 92% performance. The accounts audited are; 184 Higher Local Governments, 11 Referral Hospitals and 5 Lower Local Governments for the year 2007/2008. I also completed auditing 1,995 arrears of accounts of LLGs.

In Addition, audit of 498 arrears of accounts of LLGs are in process and will be completed by June 2009. Issues raised included;

- Under collection of revenues - Excess expenditure without authority- Administrative advances uncounted for- Unvouched and unsupported expenditures- Irregular procurements of goods and services- Non and purposed remittance of taxes to Uganda Revenue Authority- Diversion of Funds- None remittance of unspent conditional grants to consolidated funds- Diversion of funds- No Board of Survey Report- Non-depreciation of Fixed Assets in urban Authorities- Arrears of local Revenue- Wasteful expenditures- Domestic arrears and Apparent fraud. �.�.3 State Corporation Audits

The Directorate of Audit (State Corporations) carries out the audits of 77 State En-terprises, Statutory Authorities and Commissions. The entities do not have account-ing periods which are necessarily co-terminus with the government year end of 30 June. Four different accounting dates feature in the accounts of the entities as follows:-• Year ending 30th June• Year ending 30th September• Year ending 31st October• Year ending 31st December

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During the period, a total of seventy seven (77) fi-nancial audit options were issued compared to fifty five (55) in the pervious year in addition (48) forty eight special audit reports were issued forty six (46) of the opinions were unqualified (clean); twenty eighty (28) were qualified (except for), and three (3) were disclaimer of opinions. No adverse audit opinion was issued in the period. Backlog audits of 96 accounts of State Corporations is in progress.

�.2 Value For Money Audit Performance

Value for Money (VFM) audit is an audit of econo-my, efficiency and effectiveness with which the au-dited body uses its resources in carrying out its re-sponsibilities. The audit endeavours to evaluate if activities, programmes or projects involving public funds in ministries departments, Local Government Councils and any public organisations have been managed with respect to economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The VFM audits are conducted in accordance with the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) Standards.

Value for Money (VFM) audits were introduced to the office on a pilot basis in 1998 and fund-ed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). This was followed by a 3 year period of support (2005-2008) of US Dollars 1,500,000 from the Royal Norwegian Embassy ($600,000) and the African

Development Bank ($900,000) to finance au-dit field operations. The Government of Ugan-da has elevated the VFM Unit to a programme in 2008/2009 Financial Year with funding of Shs.622,000,000. This is expected to increase to Shs.2,500,000,000 in the 2008/2009 budget.

The VFM Audit Unit of the office has carried out and completed 8 reports on;

(i) National Agriculture Advisory Services (NAADS),

(ii) Distribution of Water to Urban areas (iii) Prevention and Control Livestock Diseases; Uganda Aids Control Project

(iv) NorthWest Smallholders’ Agricultural Devel-opment Project (NSADP)

(v) Management of Health Programmes

(vi) Universal Primary Education Programme

(vii) Provision of Water and Maintenance of Water Facilities in Rural Areas.

Extensive input was provided into the CHOGM Engineering VFM audit.

PERFORMANCE ON AUDIT ACTIVITIES...contd

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�.0 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

A further twelve (12) VFM audits have been initi-ated by the VFM audit Unit and are at different stages of completion. The audits are on Garbage Collection in Kampala City Council (KCC); Rural Roads Maintenance; National Planning Authority; Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF);

Passport Production time by the Passport Con-trol Office; Management of Prisons services; Management of Pension; Inspection of schools; Debt Management; Distribution of Relief items by the office of the Prime Minister; Regula-tion and Enforcement of Standards by Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS); and Distri-bution of drugs by National Medical Stores (NMS).

It is intended to upgrade the VFM Audit Unit into a directorate during the forthcoming Fi-nancial Year, and have the directorate fully staffed with staff possessing a range of rel-evant skills and qualifications in disciplines such as engineering, statistics and economics.

�.� Staff Disengagement from the Mainstream Public Service

Discussions on the delinking of the Office staff have been held between Office of the Auditor General and the Ministry of Public Service. Ar-rangements are underway to submit to the Min-istry copies of staff letters of appointment to-gether with duly completed Pension Forms N.S Form 14. As I await finalisation of the OAG staff rules and regulations, the staff are be-ing governed by the various laws, rules and regulations applicable to the Public Service.

In addition, as a body corporate and for pur-poses of motivating staff to produce expected results, the staff are being paid enhanced sala-ries and wages with effect from October 2008.

�.2 Filling of vacant positions

In conformity with the provisions of Section 9(2) of the National Audit Act, 2008, discussions with the Public Service Commission have been held and the future mode of operation has been devel-oped. The following were done during the year;- Two (2) Director posts and three (3) Assistant Directors posts were filled.- Promotional exercise to fill the vacan-cies of Director of Finance and Administration (1 Post), Senior Principal Auditor (5 Posts), Prin-cipal Auditor (2 Posts), Senior Auditor (4 Posts) and Auditor (15 Posts).

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�.0 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT...contd�.3 Results Oriented Management and the Open Performance Appraisal Scheme

The Office has embraced Results Oriented Management (ROM) as a management tools that will en-able execution of functions efficiently and effectively. ROM requires specifying strategic objectives and key outputs based on the mission which are then cascaded to the departmental and ultimately to the individual level. All staff have been trained in ROM and open performance appraisal scheme.

The open appraisal scheme is a fair and transparent mechanism upon which individual staff performance is objectively judged. The open appraisal instruments are being used to determine whether individual employees have reached pre-determined outputs and what performance improvements they may require.

Staff of Masaka Branch Office pose for a group photo with officials from the Ministry of Public Service & OAG after their Training

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�.� Restructuring

In order to build a vibrant autonomous organization, the Office is to review its current organisational structure. The results of the above review will be a restructuring report setting out amongst oth-ers, individual outputs and functions, organisational structure and staff establishments for the of-fice. During the year, the Procurement process for the exercise with funding from FINMAP was commenced. Detailed consultations were made to establish the type of consultancy needed and TOR was drawn up. Requests for Expressions of interest were made in November 2008. The success-ful bidder will be required to complete the assignment within a period of four (4) calendar months.

�.� Training

A total of 250 staff were trained in various disciplines during the year. 150 Office of the Audi-tor General staff were trained in the generic basic financial audit methods in the public sec-tor. Another 120 were trained in Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAATS) including train-ing in Teammate, Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and other Special IT Audits. Short courses have also been carried out in various disciplines like Team-mate, Financial Au-dit, Management Development Programmes, Secretarial training and Records Management.In the Accounts Unit four (4) officers were trained to use Quick Books, a financial management soft-ware for financial reporting of donor funded projects.

�.� Staff Medical Scheme

The Management of my Office has been extending medical support to 25 staff living with HIV/AIDS and their spouses as well as to those with life threatening illness like hypertension, cancer and diabetes.

Staff are assisted by way of purchase of drugs, laboratory tests, nutritional supplements and oth-er incidentals. Under the new terms and conditions of service, it is envisaged that all staff of the office shall be covered under a medical scheme provided by a reputable health service provider.

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�.0 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT...contd

�.� Pensions Rights of Staff

Dicussions have been held with the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Pub-lic Service who has guided that the staff of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) will, in accordance with the Pensions Regulation No. 14(2) and the Uganda Government Standing Orders, Chapter 1 L – e (6) be appointed on transfer to other Public Service. They will then have their Pension rights frozen until they retire from service.

�.8 Resource Centre and Library

The Resource Centre and Library has been stocked with 169 cur-rent reading materials, including professional journals, books and re-ports. The booklist is posted on the Office of the Auditor General intranet.

�.� Registration with NSSF

Meanwhile, the Office has been registered with the Nation-al Social Security Fund and the office as well as all individual staff are making monthly contributions with effect from October 2008.

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�.0 OFFICE ASSETS AND LOGISTICS

�.� Office Accommodation

The Office of the Auditor General (Headquarters) is currently partly housed at the Treasury Build-ing, at the 1st Floor of the Embassy Building and in rented premises at Crusader House, Portal Av-enue in Kampala. The Regional Branches of Arua, Gulu, Soroti, Fort Portal and Masaka are housed in OAG premises while the regional branches of Kampala, Kampala City Council, Jinja, Mbarara and Mbale are either housed in rented prem-ises or other government institutional buildings. However, the Government of Uganda with sup-port of the development partners made a pro-vision for construction of the Audit House (OAG Headquarters) and 3 regional offices in Mbale, Mbarara and Jinja. The architectural design for the OAG Headquarters in Kampala and 2 regional branch offices of Mbale and Jinja are near completion for the ten-dering processes for construc-tion contractors to commence in April 2009. The architec-tural design for the Mbarara Regional Branch office will be under taken as soon as land is availed to the Office. Mbarara District Local Gov-ernment has promised to al-locate land for this purpose.

�.2 Transport Equipment

During the year, the office acquired two station wagon vehicles from GoU resources, 9 Pickup ve-hicles and 12 motor cycles from the Financial Man-agement and Accountability Program (FINMAP) funds. In addition, the Ministry of Local Govern-ment through the Local Government Development Programme (LGDP) bought 10 motor cycles for the office. With the exception of the 2 station wagon vehicles, all the other vehicles and motor cycles were allocated to the regional branch offices to enhance the audit of Local Government entities.

The AAG Mrs. Keto Kayemba hands over the key of one of the vehicles to the Principal Auditor Fort Portal Branch Mr. Chris Makanga.

Looking on is the Director of Audit Local Government Mr. Aloysius Mayanja

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�.0 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND AUDIT DEVELOPMENT

�.� IT Strategic Plan

Over the last five years the Office has been implementing the IT Strategic Plan which fo-cuses on creation of appropriate IT governance structure, development of IT Audit capac-ity, use of automated Audit tools, use of a new automated Audit Management System (elec-tronic working papers) and creation of an Of-fice wide IT infrastructure to enhance commu-nication and improve our business processes.

The process of review and update of the Infor-mation Technology Strategic Plan is now under-way following an independent assessment of our IT function by AFROSAI-E which was successfully conducted in November 2008. The results of this assessment will be used as a foundation for the review and update of the OAG IT Strategic Plan.

Under the current IT Strategic Plan, management approved the use of electronic working papers (TeamMate Audit Software) in carrying out audits. This year, the initial roll out of the programme for the use of the electronic working papers com-menced in both Central and Local Government audits. To-date 80% of the Central Government audits and a substantial number in Local Govern-ment were carried out using the Software. Fur-ther rollout will be undertaken in the coming year.

The process of revision of our Financial Audit man-ual was started and completed. This revision was necessitated by the need to incorporate new de-velopments in Information Communications Tech-nology (ICT), Public Sector Financial Management and the revised auditing standards. With the assis-

tance of the Japanese Grant (JICA), we have now embarked on the process of developing a training programme and materials to be used to train staff.

7.2 ICT Infrastructure

To improve on the ICT infrastructure, the Jap-anese Government through JICA supported the Office with a sizeable number of computer equipment including laptops and desktops. This equipment together with the equipment re-ceived from other programmes funded by our development partners are assisting the Office to establish an entity wide ICT infrastructure.

Currently the OAG Wide Area Network links the Head Office with four (4) Regional Branch Offices. The roll out of the Network to the other Regional Branch Offices has started with Gulu Regional Branch Office under the Financial Accountabiltiy and Management Programme (FINMAP). In addition, the Network services across the entire Office are being improved through Network optimisation and decentralisation of some of the Network services.

Due to the frequent grid power failures, the Office has also installed Solar Backup Systems at the Regional Branch Offices for Soroti, Fort Portal and Masaka. Internal communication across the Office is to be enhanced with the OAG Intranet which has been developed and completed. In addition to the E-Mail services, it will provide a knowl-edge data bank for use internally by the Office.

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8.0 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET PERFORMANCEIn line with the objective of achieving financial independence of the Office, the Ministerial Policy Statement for the Financial Year 2007/08 which was successfully presented to Parliament indi-cated the immediate resource requirements and critical success factors for achieving the full man-date of my Office as a Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) of Uganda. Empowered by the final approv-al and launch of the National Audit Act 2008 (NAA 2008), the office was provided with Shs. 21.178bn of the targeted resources for the financial year 2008/09. Success was registered in the following areas in financial management and budgeting.

8.� Financial Management Performance for 2007/08

The Office prepared its financial statements within the statutory deadline for consolidation as required by the Public Finance and Account-ability Act 2003 (PFAA 2003). The financial years 2005/06 to 2007/08 have not yet been audited. Parliament has through FINMAP appointed an audit firm which will commence the audit be-fore June 2009 to complete the audit backlogs.

8.2 Financial Management Tools Introduced

At the beginning of 2008/09 financial year, finan-cial management for both projects and recurrent

budget was automated. IFMS was introduced by GOU for recurrent and development expenditure while QuickBooks was introduced for donor funded projects. These tools have tremendously improved financial reporting and reduced opportunities for misstatements and errors (both intended and un-intended) in financial records and management.

8.3 Asset Management

In addition, the office acquired additional com-puter equipment and installed an Asset manage-ment Software by the Accountant General’s of-fice. The system is expected to capture all assets under the office together with their valuation where necessary and ensure routine updates are made on acquisition, transfer and disposal. At the time of writing this report, the office’s assets were being identified for the record purposes.

8.� Budget Performance

The Office set clear targets for 2008/09 and the resources were accordingly availed. The final Budget for 2008/09 was approved with the re-quired resources. Of the 2007/08 financial year budget, 92% resources were actually received from the Treasury and the Donors delivered 100% of the promised funding under African Development Bank (ADB) and Norwegian funding.

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8.0 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET PERFORMANCE...contdBudget Type

Approved Budget

2007/08 (Bns)

Actual Outturn 2007/08

(Bns)

Approved 2008/09

(Bns)

Projected 2009/10

(Bns)

MTEF Allocation 2010/11

(Bns)

MTEF Allocation 2011/12

(Bns)Donor Devt 1.310 1.300 1.382 0.25 0.22 0.22GoU Devt 0.460 0.322 0.310 2.16 2.16 2.70Recurrent 8.114 7.535 19.486 21.94 21.94 21.94Total �.88� �.��� 2�.��8 2�.3� 2�.32 2�.8�

PPDA requirements so as to ensure that the office received the best value from its resources.

(b) Internal Audit

The Internal Audit Unit with a Senior Internal Auditor has been at hand to advise on controls and recommending cor-rective action to management where.

All procurements, acquisitions, advances and claims were thoroughly reviewed for com-pleteness and adherence to the requirements of the relevant financial management laws.

In total 5 reports including quarterly and adhoc reports were produced as well as a comprehen-sive annual review of the internal controls. The reports were addressed to the Accounting Officer.

With the 2007/08 Budget, the Office was able to carry out 1,344 audits of public accounts and train in total 155 staff; professionals (80), Value for Money (25), Information Systems Audt (10) and other assorted trainings and activities (40).

A new MTEF ceiling was raised to cover the period up to 2011/12. The ceiling reflects the increased budget of the Office of the Auditor General as an autonomous body. The details of the MTEF ceilings and performance is summarised in a table below:-

8.� Other cross cutting Issues

(a) Procurement Unit

The Office has an established Procurement Unit currently headed by a Procurement Of-ficer and Contracts Committee to handle all Office Procurements. The Annual procure-ment Plan for 2008/09 has already been pre-pared and submitted to PPDA. All procurements that were made in 2007/08 complied with the

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�.0 RELATIONSHIP WITH OVERSIGHT COMMITTEES OF PARLIAMENT

The Parliament of Uganda has the Constitutional mandate to perform the oversight function over the public funds and require the Executive arm of Government to account for the public resources entrusted to them.

The oversight function is executed through three accountability committees of Parliament namely; the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for Central Govern-ment Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Local Government Pubic Ac-counts Committee (LPAC) for Local Government; and the Committee on State Enterprises, Commissions and Statutory bodies, (COSASE) in line with Article 164 (3) of the Constitution.

I am expected to provide technical guidance to the 3 Commit-tees of the House as well as the District Public Accounts Commit-tee (DPACs) for each District. During the year, I reported to the Speak-er of the House and participated actively in the Committees discussions.

The following table shows the number of committee discussion and meetings the office attended in Parliament:-

Committee Number of Meetings Reports HandledPAC 186 MDAs 2001/02-2005/06

LGPAC 93 Districts (80) and Municipalities (13) for FY

2001/02-2004/05COSASE 25 State Corporatons 2001/02-

2005/06TOTAL 304

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�0.0 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

�0.� International Consortium On Government Financial Management (ICGFM)

The Office of the Auditor General is currently one of the six Organisation Member of the Interna-tional Consortium on Government Financial Man-agement (ICGFM) who serve on its Board. The Consortium works globally with governments, organisations and individuals by providing oppor-tunities for professional development and informa-tion exchange to its members and individuals who are interested in developments in public financial management. The Consortium serves as an “um-brella” to bring together diverse governmental entities, organisations and individuals together, who include a broad array of financial management practitioners working in all levels of government.

Other types of members on the Board comprise of “individual members” and “sustaining members”. Most notable of the sustaining members are (i) As-sociation of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK), (ii) Association of Government Accountants (USA) (iii) Grant Thornton (iv) Inter-American Bank – Auditor General (v) The World Bank – Auditor General (vi) The International Monetary Fund (vii) Institute of Internal Auditors (viii) US Government Accountability Office (ix) US Agency for Interna-tional Development – Inspector General (x) Or-ganisation of American States – Inspector General.

�0.2 United Nations – Indepen-dent Audit Advisory Committee

The Auditor General is a member of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee. The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, which was established to serve in an “ex-pert advisory capacity”, and to assist the General Assembly in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities.

The Committee members comprise of an excep-tional group of senior level personalities with fi-nancial, audit and/or other oversight-related ac-tivities. The Committee is mandated to advise (i) the General Assembly on the scope, results and effectiveness of audit and other oversight func-tions, (ii) on measures to ensure management’s compliance with audit and other oversight recom-mendations and (iii) on various risk management, internal control, operational and accounting and disclosure issues. The Committee is independent of the Board of Auditors, the Joint Inspection Unit and the United Nations Secretarial. The Commit-tee is comprised of five members. The other four members are the former Auditors General of the United States of America (GAO), India, Jamaica and a representative from the Russian Federation.

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�0.0 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ...contd

�0.3 World Bank Multilateral Audit Advisory Group

The Auditor General is a member of the World Bank’s Multilateral audit Group (MAAG). The World Bank Group has in addition to its “Audit Committee” established a “Multilateral Audit Advi-sory Group” (MAAG) that is specifically tasked with, advising the Audit Committee of the Bank on audit requests by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) such as the United States Govern-ment Accounting Office (GAO), or indeed any other National Audit Office. Such advice ex-tends to assessing compliance with the agreed terms of reference for the audit; assessing adher-ence to the agreed group rules; and providing objective comment on the resulting audit reports.MAAG is tasked with facilitating the protection of the Bank’s “principles of multilateralism” and the confi-dentiality of the Bank’s information. Such unilateral audits requested through the SAIs are granted at the discretion of the Board and Management of the Bank as part of its accountability framework to its mem-ber countries, whilst noting that under the Articles of Agreement, (between the Bank and the Member States), it is not subject to the direct audit authority of SAIs. In addition the Bank already has in place a broad multifaceted internal and external oversight framework. MAAG is comprised of three members, and the other two members are from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and France as the Chair.

�0.� INTOSAI And IDI

INTOSAI in full is the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions and IDI is the International Development Initiative while INTOSAI is an organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) of countries who are members of the United Nations, the IDI is the training arm of INTOSAI. The office of the Auditor General is a member of the INTOSAI and subscribes to it. During the period, the office actively participated in the activities of INTOSAI and shared knowledge, information and experiences with its member SAIs through several conferences, workshops, training and correspondences.

�0.� AFROSAI And AFROSAI-E

AFROSAI in full is African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. It is a continent wide organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) of Africa. My office is a member of AFROSAI and subscribes to it.

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During the period of reporting, my office ex-changed knowledge, information and experi-ences with AFROSAI as an organisation and its individual SAI members through conferences, workshops, trainings and correspondences.

AFROSAI-E is a sub-regional or-ganisation of English speaking AFROSAI members. It has its Secretariat in South Africa. The Office is a member and sub-scribes to it. During the period of reporting the office actively par-ticipated in its activities and events through conferences, trainings, and workshops to ex-change knowledge, information and experiences. In addition the Office as contracted AFRO-SAI-E to train and build capacity of the office in Value for Money (VFM) audits.

�0.� Commonwealth Auditors General Conference

The office is a member of the Commonwealth Auditors General Conference which convenes once every 3 years. The last conference was held in July 2008 in Bermuda. It was attended by the Assistant Auditor General and the Director of Audit (State Corporations) of my office. The next conference will be held in 2011.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS...contd

�0.� International Delegations

During the period my office received and hosted the following:- • Parliamentarians from the Federal Repub-lic of Nigeria seen in the picture below;

• Officials from the Administrative Control Authority of Egypt • Liberian Civil Service Delegation. • Delegation of National Audit Office of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar. • Officials of the General Auditing Commis-sion of the Republic of Liberia.

These delegations came to share experiences withe the Office and broaden each other’s knowledge.

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�0.8 International Visits

The Auditor General was invited in November 2007 by ACCA to make a presentation to the Interna-tional Assembly in London. The International Assembly comprises of representatives from all regions across the world where ACCA has members. The Assembly meets annualy to consider issues of stra-tegic global importance to ACCA.

Other visits made by staff abroad include:-

• Two officers who attended International Audit Seminar organised by the SAI of China for African SAIs.

Director Local Authorities Mr. Aloysius Mayanja & the Auditor General of China Mr. Liu Jiayi

• Eight staff who attended Public Works Audits Seminar in Japan sponsored by JICA.

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��.0 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

�2.0 REGISTRATION OF ACCOUNTANTS

Corporate Social Responsibility is being aware of problems and challenges facing the society and participating in the efforts to solve them. During the period the Office participated in a golf com-petition. The aim of the competition was to raise awareness about breast cancer. The office contrib-uted Shs.500,000 towards the cause.

The Office also participated in the MTN organised Marathon competition for other noble causes. Twenty five staff were sponsored by the office and participated in the competition.

The Auditor General is the Registrar for Accountants as required by Section 9 of the Accoun-tant’s Statute 1992, and is required to register and maintain a register for the Accountants in Uganda. The role of the Accountants is fundamental in providing the financial framework in Accounting, Auditing, Taxation and Business consultations both in public and private organisations.

It is therefore critical that the proposed amendments to the Accountants Statute needs to be followed up and a revised Bill be presented to Parliament for enactment so that the Accountancy Profession can be strengthened to play its vital role in the economy.

During the period of reporting, the AG registered sixty nine (69) Accountants. A further fifty seven (57) Accountants had applied to be registered at the time of writing this report.

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�3.0 APPENDIX I

GLOSSARY

ACCA Association of Chartered Certified AccountantsADB African Development BankAFROSAI African Organisation of Supreme Audit InstitutionAFROSAI-E A Sub-Regional Organisation of English Speaking AFROSAI AG Auditor GeneralBFP Budget Framework PaperBns BillionsCAATS Computer Assisted Audit TechniquesCHOGM Common Wealth Heads of Government MeetingCOSASE Committee on State Enterprises, Commissions and Statutory CorporationsDFID Department for International DevelopmentDPAC District Public Accounts CommitteeFINMAP Financial Management and Accountability ProgrammeGAO General Accounting Office GoU Government of UgandaHLGs Higher Local GovernmentsICGFM International Consortium on Government Financial ManagementICT Information Communication TechnologyIDI International Development InitiativeIFMS Integrated Financial Management SystemINTOSAI International Organisational of Supreme Audit InstitutionsIT Information TechnologyJICA Japanese International Cooperation AgencyKCC Kampala City CouncilLGDP Local Government Development ProgrammeLLGs Lower Local GovernmentsLPAC Local Government Public Accounts CommitteeMAAG Multilateral Audit Advisory GroupMCC Millennium Challenge Cooperation

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MDA Ministries Departments and AgenciesMTEF Medium Term Expenditure FrameworkNAA National Audit ActNAADS National Agriculture Advisory ServicesNMS National Medical StoresNSADP Northwest Smallholder’s Agricultural Development ProjectNSSF National Social Security FundNUSAF Northern Uganda Social Action FundOAG Office of the Auditor GeneralPAC Public Accounts CommitteePFAA Public Finance and accountability ActPPDA Public Procurement and Disposal ActRHs Referral HospitalsROM Results Oriented ManagementSAI Supreme Audit InstitutionUNBS Uganda National Bureau of StandardsUSAID United States Agency for International DevelopmentVFM Value for Money

APPENDIX I...contd

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LIST OF OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL REGIONAL BRANCH OFFICES

1. ARUA Regional Audit Branch Office 2. GULU Regional Audit Branch Office3. FORTPORTAL Regional Audit Branch Office4. JINJA Regional Audit Branch Office5. KAMPALA Regional Audit Branch Office6. KCC Regional Audit Branch Office7. MASAKA Regional Audit Branch Office8. MBALE Regional Audit Branch Office9. MBARARA Regional Audit Branch Office10. SOROTI Regional Audit Branch Office

APPENDIX II

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Office of the Auditor GeneralP.O. Box 7083, Kampala

Tel: 256-414-345674Fax: 256-414-345674

E-mail: info@oag.go.ugWebsite: www.oag.go.ug